ZincFive Inc., an Oregon-based battery manufacturer that makes nickel-zinc power systems for data centers, is merging with a blank-check company backed by SparkLabs Group to go public at a $600 million valuation.
What ZincFive actually does
Founded in 2016 in Tualatin, Oregon, ZincFive designs and manufactures advanced nickel-zinc battery systems. These aren’t the lithium-ion packs in your phone or Tesla. They’re high-power, immediate-discharge systems built specifically for the kind of uninterruptible power that data centers require.
When a data center loses grid power, even for a fraction of a second, something needs to bridge the gap before backup generators kick in. That “something” has traditionally been lead-acid batteries, the same basic chemistry that starts your car. ZincFive’s pitch is that nickel-zinc does the job better, with higher power density and, critically, no risk of thermal runaway — these batteries won’t catch fire, which is a selling point that resonates when you’re storing them next to millions of dollars worth of Nvidia GPUs.
The company has already secured contracts or deployment arrangements supporting nearly 2 gigawatts of data center power needs. For context, 2 GW is roughly enough to power 1.5 million homes.
